Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Quick Lemon Raisin Scones

I hope everyone enjoyed the Memorial Day/Bank Holiday weekend! There was lots of time spent outdoors in the surprisingly pleasant weather here. I'm really pleased the sunshine decided to stick around for the long weekend! Late last night I decided to make use of the bowl of lemons on the counter and whip together these quick Lemon Raisin Scones.

What you'll need:

(Makes 9 scones)

225g self raising flour

60g unsalted butter (room temperature)

30g soft light brown sugar

150ml skimmed milk

zest of 1 lemon

75g raisins

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

What to do:

Preheat oven to 180C/360F.

In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, and skim milk using a handheld mixer. Then gradually mix in the flour. Keep going until all of the flour is mixed in and the dough starts to clump together.

Next, add the zest of one lemon. I squeezed in a bit of lemon juice too, just to add an extra lemony kick.

Once the lemon zest is thoroughly mixed into the dough, add the raisins. Give the dough a few more seconds with the handheld mixer to distribute the raisins.

Next you'll need to lightly flour a surface and flatten your dough out. You could be fancy and use a rolling pin, but I honestly just used my hands. Quick and easy, right? Flatten the dough out until it's about 1/2 an inch thick. Then cut out scone circles. Again, you can use a fancy cookie cutter or scone cutting contraption if you have one, or you can turn a small drinking glass upside down and portion out your scone dough that way. (Or am I the only person who keeps used glass Nutella jars to use as juice glasses?)

Space evenly on a baking sheet (coating the surface lightly with butter or baking spray if it's not already a non-stick surface) and pop into the oven for about 12 minutes.

The final product should have risen nicely (hooray for fluffy scones!) and should be golden brown. Enjoy warm alone or with some jam! These hold up well for a day or two in an airtight container too.